Iraqi security sources on Thursday said over a dozen convicted al-Qaeda members escaped overnight from a prison in the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. Sixteen prisoners, including five who have been sentenced to death, managed to escape at night from one of the prisons in the center of Tikrit, a security official told AFP.

The group managed to remove the windows from a prison bathroom, crawled through the opening and scaled a ladder to climb over the prison wall, he conveyed. One of the men was re-captured on Thursday morning but the rest were still at large, the official added.

Iraqi forces have stepped up security in Tikrit following the incident.